questo e lo

This is for real my last entry for my study abroad blog and this one is more for me to help me remember how I felt after all this.

So my feelings on Italy and Italian people, my views on both were switching constantly based on everyday interactions I was having. At first and even now I am not a huge fan of Italian people, they have a HORRIBLE staring problem and I mean horrible they have no problem starring you down for awkwardly long periods of time. The women especially are not friendly to each other especially to non-Italians while I was there I did not make one Italian female friend that was under 40 years old. I guess it is part of their culture and someone told me that they stare from the shoes up and if your shoes aren’t good enough they don’t continue looking. Another problem I had with Italians is they are very cold people but I feel like a lot of them are this way with everybody and it takes a lot for a person to build your trust for them to really open up to you. The comradery between guys there though is really cute, guy friends are very affectionate towards each other which would not be as excepted in the US and they are not afraid to tell people how much they like their friend haha hope that made sense.

Obviously they have an amazing culture and every city within Italy that I visited was beautiful and all very different from one another. The saying that Italians talk with their hands is SO true even Edoardo gets his daily exercise in by all the motions and hand gestures he uses. It was funny to see people drive and talk and still using their hand gestures. Italians also like to sit in their car when I would walk around in residential neighborhoods people were always sitting in their cars on the computer, on the phone, sleeping it was like their second living space. Italians also do not believe in picking up their dogs poop, Rome always has a faint smell of dog waste that is disgusting and it is so bad in the residential areas, I know a few people who have lost a pair of shoes to this problem. None the less Italians love their dogs, Edoardo’s mom told me people show off their dogs, the breed can be a social status indicator.

Italian fashion…definitely questionable I thought I was going to be in the center of it all but Rome certainly did not reach my expectation. The hot thing in Rome this winter was big puffy purple jackets with furr on the hood. They also declare a color of the year/season and this year it was purple. In other cities like Milan and Florence the style got better but I found for the most part Italian women clothes to be tacky, cheap, and unflattering.
Ok enough bashing on the Italians I did meet some really cool people and my favorite thing is the old Italian stroll. Throughout the day old people in Rome take strolls around their city and piazzas and I have grown to love the idea of walking everywhere (mostly because I had to).

I think Rome was an amazing place to study abroad, there is so much to see and do in that city that one could never conquer it in a weekend or week visit. There are a ton of things and places I didn’t get a chance to see but it is a great excuse for me to go back. I don’t think I could ever live in Italy for an extended period of time, their everyday actions are very aggressive and angry which is not at all like the California vibe that I like / need. I would constantly find myself mad at stuff I would never get mad because other people were and my patience shrunk. The time that I was there was enough for me to embrace the people and the culture and succeed in fitting in but after the stress of my finals I was ready to go home.

I think studying abroad is an amazing experience because you really do learn a lot about yourself and your limits with people, culture, and traveling. Moving somewhere you have never been before where they speak a language you barley know is an accomplishment in its own but those two elements ended up being the less challenging things I had to deal with.

Pensieri finali

Well even though I have left Italy I still want to make some comments about my full time abroad. I have about 7 or so hours in layovers in London and Chicago so I thought this would be a perfect time to recap.

I will start with the outcome of my projects, last Monday I had to say goodbye to my little friend Edoardo, who I tutored 2 days a week. We definitely had our ups and downs, our good days and our bad days but none the less I am still going to miss the little rascal. He (indirectly) taught me the most Italian, especially how to use commands haha. I am pretty sure he taught me more Italian than I taught him English the best thing he learned were the lyrics and some dance moves to “Everybody Dance Now,” when he sings that part that was the closest to a sentence and as a very proud moment for me and his parents.

(my favorite italiano Edo)

Throughout the semester I continued my service work at the refugee center. I got to know a lot of the regulars pretty well and this experience taught me more about the world, politics, economics, than any class I have ever taken. I still can’t get over how smart these guys are and how unfortunate their situation is. The combination of Edoardo’s English lessons and giving English lessons at the center, I think my English has improved more so than my Italian. I am disappointed on how little I improved in Italian. I think the biggest problem was my school is an American school, so everybody speaks English and a lot of Italians know or are trying to learn English so they always insist on speaking to me in English. So by being here my English got better, my Spanish got worse, and my Italian may have improved slightly. I still really want to pursue the language, it is a fun language, filled with a lot of fun expressions, but I just need to build up my vocabulary.

(The classroom within the center)

The documentary that I was working on is for the most part complete, I completed it enough to have a screening of it at my school during finals week. Films are never really finished though I could tweek with that thing until I die but the screening went really well, there were over 150 students and staff that came and I got a lot of really good feedback on it which was nice. The film title is ‘Nice Country’ and is based on an immigrant and a refugee that come to Italy to find a better life.

Fine Settimana di Pasqua

Holy week in Rome was crazy intense! A few weeks leading up to it we started to notice the floods of tourist come in. There were lines at all our usual hang out spots and the buses and streets were super crowded. Even though I guess I am still technically a ‘tourist’ I did not like all these people invading my city, now I blend in with the tourist so my strong attempt to blend in is fading. On Good Friday my friend and I went to the Coliseum for a Stations of the Cross ceremony. There were A LOT of people there and we were all standing in the square right outside the coliseum and between the Arch of Constantine. The pope said a little prayer before and then all the stations were read in Italian. It was basically a bunch of people staring up at a stage where people were reading the story. The coolest part was seeing all the people from all over the place and hearing Papa Bene’s voice I hadn’t heard it since I went to World Youth Day in 2008.
(my view of stations of the cross, Papa Bene is under the red tent)
(Me with my De Michele margharita pizza!)

Saturday a few friends and I took the regional train down to Naples. I had been dying to go there because the artist of my favorite book (Eat, Pray Love) said the best pizzeria in all of Italy was there. We took the slowest, cheapest train which took 3 hours which went through a lot of pretty countryside. We heard some horror stories of how dirty and sketchy Naples was but honestly I didn’t think it was that bad. The city reminds me a lot of Mexico (no offence fam bam.) the streets near the station were dirty and there were a lot of immigrants selling random things but I never felt unsafe except for whenever I was crossing the street. I thought Roma was bad but I don’t believe people in Naples even need a license to drive! We walked around the major city sites, got THE pizza at De Michele’s which was as good as Elizabeth Gilbert said it was! There was a huge line to get in but the cooks were so nice and insisted I take a picture with them. We walked along the water which was gorgeous and then headed back to Roma in time to rest for what comes next.
(Bridget and I on the coast of Napoli)
(my look back of the crowded Piazza)
Easter mass was insane to say the least. Katarina, Catherine, and I got in line outside St. Peter’s square at 6am and there were about 30 people ahead of us, the doors didn’t open till 8:30 and the mass didn’t start till 10:15am. The wait did not feel that long and we meet some cool people but I was the group representative to run through security and try to get us the best seats possible. Once the doors opened it was MADNESS I threw my purse through the security machine and bolted through the crowd, security tried to stop me from running but I just smiled and said Buona Pasqua! I wish I could have film that moment it was great I was literally running with nuns and leaping over chairs and people but my efforts got us in the 3rd row dead center of the altar.
(Papa Bene!)

(Me infront of the St. Peter's- this is where my seat was!)
We ended up being surrounded by a bunch of US students 2 who go to USF, so crazy, but I was literally shaking I was so excited and pumped about our location. Despite it pouring pretty much the entire mass it was great. Communion was super hectic but being in the presence of sooooo many people from all over the world was amazing. I did not realize HOW MANY people were around me until we tried to leave. We just kept walking past tons and tons of people all standing and smashed in gated areas which made me so grateful for my chair way upfront. After mass we had an Easter dinner at Katarina’s apartment and then the next day all schools are closed for Holy Monday so we had a lovely picnic in Roma’s huge park Villa Borghese.
(Papa Bene's final message from his balcony)

Quando una ragazza irlandese va a Dublin

So this past weekend I spent three days in Dublin, despite how far it is (In European retrospect) it was one of the cheapest cities to fly to from Roma. A good friend of mine, Casey McKinnon is studying abroad there so I was able to stay with her. I got there late on Thursday and she was waiting for me at the airport shuttle stop by her school, University of College Dublin. We spent a lovely night together catching up and eating mac and cheese, another American food I weirdly miss.

Friday we started on Grafton St. which is where you go to see and be seen in Dublin, as far as fashion is concerned. They had an amazing H&M, a few guilty purchases were made but the best thing Dublin has is starbucks!! Even though I am surrounded by the ‘best’ coffee in Roma I miss my starbucks. Grafton St. also has a ton of pubs and live performers and I have recently been getting into Irish rocker/folk tunes so that was fun. At the end of Grafton is St. Stephen’s Green which is no doubly green, as is most of Dublin and Ireland in general. St. Stephens is very calm and peaceful, a lot of families strolling around, from there we went to Trinity College. This school looks straight out of a Harry Potter movie, it was nice to walk around and pretend to be an intellectual. I missed Dublin’s film festival by 2 weeks but we found the Irish Film Institute and we bought tickets to a later showing of an indie film. Then we went to the Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral, this church is a lot more gothic than Roman churches but it is so hard to compare any church to those is Roma.

(me in St. Stephen's Green)

We went back to see our movie, ‘Lion’s Den’, which first off was sooo goooood. The synopsis sounds a bit complicated on the surface but basically it is about a young women in Argentina who gets sent to jail while she is pregnant and it shows how she raises her son in jail and eventual escapes and flea’s with her son to another country. Highly recommend it, if you can find it. After the film we had a discussion at O’Neil’s restaurant which is a buffet of delicious Irish dishes, I had turkey and ham cooked in white wine with some mash potatoes and stuffing. After we went to a couple bars and met up with the people from my school who I flew with and another friend from USF.

(The Ha'Penny Bridge over the Liffey River

Saturday we went to a two story starbucks right along the water in Blackrock, a small oceanside town outside of Dublin. Then we went to a rugby game for the local team, Leinster, it was EPIC and intense and sooo funny. I felt like I was getting an authentic Irish experience being there, people mixing religious and swear words all over the place. The home team won and it was ladies night which added to the greatness of the game. We spent the rest of the night pub and club hoping along the Liffey River. My favorite pub was the oldest one in Dublin, Brazenhead, where an undisclosed age minimum must have been 50 haha but we meet some really cool old Irish folks who loved to get there jiggy with it on the dance floor!

Leinster in blue! GO BOYS IN BLUE!
(Me)

Sunday we had a nice late start and just wandered around Dublin so I could finish souvenir shopping and we found some cute little streets to shop and browse through. This day, like ever other included trips to starbucks and another amazing Irish dish and pub. I basically took a two hour nap that night because I had to be at the airport really early and back in Roma for a full day of classes and work. It was pretty rough but it was so nice to spend time with Casey, she was a great tour guide and it is nice to be around someone who has known you for longer than 3 months. Dublin is a very small city especial compared to Roma, but it is beautiful, clean, and they speak English! Even though technically they speak English, they have an entirely different word bank and some crazy word combinations. Another cool thing about Ireland is the name Robinson is Irish/Scottish so I was able to learn some interesting things about the history of my family’s last name. This was my last trip out of Italy, but thankfully not my last trip before I leave. A presto!

(Casey and I infront of Christ Church Cathedral)

(Trinity College)

Tunisia- fotos

The Great Mosque

The Star Wars Village

me and the Sahara

Sahara sunrise

our camp site

Me in the dunes
Me and Tarzone
hehe isn't he cute!

Me, Tim, and Bess

Katherine, Bridget, and I being ourselves

The Tunisia Colosseum!

When Tunisia and Rome unite

our first hotel and the Mediterrainian Sea

Ho sentito il piove in Africa! (Tunisia)

Allora... for my spring break I went to Tunisia from March 5th to the 14th. And all you really need to know is that it was AMAZING! So great that it has taken me this long to recover and to soak it all in to write about it, haha. I will do a little day by day entry now and then to follow will be an entry just of photos! This was a school trip so it was me and about 70 other students from my school. Where do I begin...

3/5- We flew from Rome to the captial Tunis, Tunisia and as soon as we landed we went to the American Embassy for a briefing on the country and it's relations with the US. One of the things we learned was how profressive Tunisia is compared to other muslim countries. The country speaks an arabic dialect and almost eveyone speaks french...so my italian was pretty much useless. After we checked into our fabulous hotel right along the Mediterrainian Sea, I had a balcony that overlooked the water, it was gorgeous! Our hotel had an amazing buffet, I anticipated eating fried crikets or some foriegn insect of some kind but I was very well fed and no insects yah! Later that night a bunch of us went to a hookah bar and in Tunisia hookah (they call it shee-sha) is a very social activity.

3/6- In the morning we had a guest speaker who informed of issues among Arab states and then we meet with Tunisian law students for lunch. They all spoke very good english and I was able to chat with one of the coolest people EVER- Afef. She is 25 years old and is from Tunisia and she keeps it real!!! She went shopping with me after in the market and helped me bargain with people in arabic, she was super fiesty, honest, so now her and I keep in contact on facebook. Her and I were comparing the mentality of women in the US and in Tunisia, she had some really interesting things to say. Shopping in the markets was an experience in itself, the men that work there speak so many languages and it if so funny how they try to draw you in their store. My favorite was, "your face is so enchanting I must see it from much closer" haha please.... but one guy guessed that I was mexican and I got so happy I bought something from him! After the market I went to a large catholic church for mass, which was in french....interesting.

3/7 This day we left Tunis for Carthage where we went to a museum full of Roman ruins...go figure. Then we had lunch along the beach, visited a mosque, an ancient Tunisian cemetary and an anciet Roman bath house. We also went to the only American cemetary in Africa of soliders that died in World War II. The cemetary beautifully honored everyone and I felt very fortunate to visit it for a general reason and not a personal one. Later we continued on to the city of Sousse where we stayed for the night.

3/8 In the morning we left for the city of El Jem where we saw more Roman ruins, a colosseum wanna-be, which was really cool! So...since going to Tunisia was a 21rst birthday present from my parents I wanted to celebrate my bday there....so I told everyone that today was my birthday haha! Anway we also went to a spice market, a couple site-seeing spots including a bar where they filmed a scene in Star Wars!! Apparently a lot of star wars was filmed in Tunisia (i'll demo w. photos) but at the bar everyone sang happy bday and bought me beer which was so funny!

3/9 Today was the best day of the trip!! We left for the city of Douz and along the way we stopped at some beautiful sites as we entered the Sahara Desert. We did a group camel ride but then we split into little groups and I got to be with my friend Tim who is soo fun and another girl Bess. Our camels names were Tarzone, Tim's was Sheba, and Bess's Jimi. I could go on and on about the camel ride, the whole time it felt so unreal! After the camel ride we went off roading to our camping site in jeeps in the middle of no where! The jeep ride felt like an Indian Jones ride, it was so crazy and hectic and great! I have some really great videos of all of us screaming. We got to the camp site like I said in the middle of no where!! It was GORGEOUS! We were just surrounded by dunes and soft Sahara sand. My friends and I sat on the highest dune around and watched the sunset and then we all gathered up for dinner- which was suprisingly really good! Our tents however... haha were pretty much blankets hanging from pieces of wood. But after dinner we had belly dancers peform and live traditional music and we all sang and danced around a huge camp fire....it was incredible to say the least. I barley got any sleep cuz I was so fired up and I could not close my eyes from the beautiful sky, you have never seen so many stars untill you go there!

3/10- We woke up bright and early to watch the sunrise and then we headed out on our jeeps again to Tamerza and along the way we stopped at a water fall, a salt lake and some other beautiful nature places. Then we finally got to our hotel to shower from all the sand. The Sahara sand is so fine, it get everywhere! I am still finiding it all over my room. Our hotel had a great view of some Saharan terrain!

3/11- We left the hotel in our jeeps and continued off roading in the desert for a couple hours. SO FUN!! it was literally a 2 hour disneyland ride with amazing views all around you. At one point we were driving right along the Algerian border! We went to the Star Wars village, where more scenes were shot and over some crazy big dunes and palm tree gardens. Then we went to see some Roman ruins in the city of Sbeitla.

3/12- This day we went to Tunisia's holiest city- Kairouan and we went to the 3rd most important Mosque in the world. We also went to a few other signifigant muslim buildings. We then headed to Hammet a large city near Tunis and this hotel that we stayed out felt like a cruise ship, you did not have to leave for anything and it had a beach entrance to the Meditterainian Sea. There was a hookah lounge there and after we went to a local discoteca. FYI Tunisia has amazing music!!! A lot of great house and techno sounds mixed in with their cultural tunes....I bought 2 cd's when I was there I liked it so much!

3/13- Our last full day was in Hammet and we finally got a free day so of course we went shopping and to the beach. At the markets I usually spoke italian, one to practise and to hopefully get a better deal! So I started talking to a vendor in italian and he was like "you speak italian like a mexican, you must be from Mexico, I think Guadalajara." I almost died!! Because you know my mamma is from there, it was the first time in my life someone had ever guessed that about me...I almost cried. Haha so I bought something from him too! On the way back we walked along the beach, it was lovely.... Then that night we went to the biggest discoteca in Tunisia, it was three stories, and soo much fun! We meet a ton of cool people, who thought we were the prettiest most interesting people ever! And I am keeping in contact with a few of them on facebook!

3/14- Sadly we had to leave Tunisia...back to Rome, I know right what a rough life. Sorry this entry is so long but I did not even scratch the surface on describing Tunisia or it's people. You have to go there for yourself to know and I highly suggest it, heck I will go with you so I can do it again! The entire trip I roomed with two chikas Katherine and Bridget who made everything even better they are sOOO fun and I will always remember our memories together ;)

Io Sono Nicky Hilton e sono en Milano

My midterms are over!! So now I have time to catch up on my latest trip... to MILANO!! As usual no planning other than our flight and hotel happened before hand as usual...things worked out perfectly! Right before we left I checked out a book from our library a Forbes the top 25 places in Milan and that book was a life savor. It told us all the do's and don'ts and we pretty much followed those and found a couple other cool spots that some locals suggested. We left EARLY Friday morning caught 2 trains to the airport and took our hour flight. Security within Italy is scarily relaxed- didn't take my shoes off, brought on liquids... so different from LAX.

We got to our hostel checked in, got diva'd out, did I mention we went during fashion week!? I wish I had time and money to prepare my wardrobe for this weekend but I did the best I could. Our hotel was really nice, we had a balcony over the street and it was close to the metro and Via Buenos Aires which is known for good shopping. Our first stop was the Duomo which was incredible...I think it is more impressive than the Vatican. We hung out in the Piazza, people watched a little bit, went inside the church, and then walked the 25o steep stairs to the top of the church. We window shopped in the Victor Emmanuel Arch indoor shopping center, explored the surrounding area, then went to a suggested restaurant for appertivo. I am obsessed with appertivo such a good deal, 10 euro's for a drink and all you an eat appetizers. The place we went was super chic and glamorous and we had our own VIP section....duh.

(The Milano Duomo)

(View from the Duomo roof)

(Milano skyline)

(Gabby and I at the V.E. Arch)

The entire weekend we all took on celebrity alter-ego's I was Nicky Hilton, and my crew consisted of Wynonna Rider, Keanue Reeves, Katy Perry, and Kristen Stewart. So even though we were all on tight budgets we just walked around knowing we were fabulous and pretended we were loaded, we even convinced someone that I really was Nicky haha so cruel but so fun! Anyway... Saturday we found a street market / swap meet type place where I scored some good deals and added a few lovely pieces to my wardrobe. After we went to THE design museum which had a lot of cool funky pieces we walked to a carnival and a castle near by then headed back towards the hotel for some more shopping.

(Bridget and I at the castle)

Sunday we went to THE shopping street Quaderno de Oro with all the big designers and we stopped in Armani and tried their amazing chocolate!! I window shopped awhile but no big purchases were made (don't worry mom). After we went to Santa Marie delle Grazie where the original Last Super is. Apparently we needed a reservation two weeks in advance but I don't take no for an answer. So I asked the sweet old man working, do you really not have anymore tickets because we leave tomorrow morning (all with a sad pouty face) in the best italian I could. He told us to hold on, made a phone call, and we got a reservation!! The painting was not what I expected, it was huge and painted on the wall inside of the church. After we went to another chic restaurant Le Biciclete for appertivo, which was the best appertivo I have ever had and then we had gelato which was also the best I had ever had!

(Santa Maria delle Grazie)

Milan is a very different from Roma. It is more modern and industrial and there is a lot less history and historical sites. They do however have the best public transportation. All the Milanese people we meet were so nice and helpful, honestly I think people here just appreciate when you attempt to speak Italian. Other than being fabulous and going to fabulous places we got into site-seeing and kind of forgot about the fashion week scene. It was more that we just wanted to say we had been to Milan for fashion week haha. All in all a successful, super fun, and amazing trip, except for the 3AM wake up call to catch our flight back. Ciao for a week because I will be on spring break in Tunisia!

(Katy, Nicky, and Keanue)